Gap year graduates are facing a 'career crisis'

Graduates who take a gap year abroad after university are facing a "career crisis", according to research released today.

Uncertain of the career they want to pursue, they are taking low-paid administration jobs when they return home, says the Training Development Agency for Schools.

It found that almost one in four graduates aged between 20 and 30 was struggling to find the right career, with more than half (58 per cent) doing a job they disliked.

Having opted for a "quick fix" job or spent time travelling, one in four said they were now worried about being left behind their contemporaries.

Of those not working in their ideal job, one in five said they had lost their momentum since leaving university and one in seven said they had fallen into their current job. The study, which questioned 1,100 graduates aged under 30, found that a quarter believed that the longer they waited to find a permanent job the more unemployable they became.